PILOBOLUS DANCE THEATRE
Recently at the Auditorium Theatre, Pilobolus–which now numbers six (new) dancers, including two women–showed how far their ingenuity has taken them in 17 years. The group burst onstage with a medley of Elvis Presley favorites; presented a disturbing portrait of violence and rape; and finally slipped neatly out of narrative with a minimalist, primitive exhibit of bare flesh and muscle.
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The newest piece on the program, and a Chicago premiere, was I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone (1987). This was a lark, a merry mess of bumbling courtship, shot through with sexual tension and slapstick humor.
What was most pleasing about I’m Left was the slippery ease of movement paired with Presley’s silken voice. Unlike Twyla Tharp, who used recent (that is, thin and stiff) Frank Sinatra recordings in her Nine Sinatra Songs, with disastrous results, Pilobolus used youthful, athletic Presley recordings: “Tutti Frutti,” “All Shook Up,” and others. The music was a perfect match with the dancers’ lean force.
I was surprised to see that, for the concert I attended, every work had at least four choreographers. The program notes named ten choreographers for I’m Left–all six dancers, plus four of Pilobolus’s five artistic directors. But it seems fitting that Pilobolus’s mark is the group effort, just as their weird onstage inventions are formed of many arms, legs, and behinds. Pilobolus has taken what it needs from others–a funny bone from the irreverent Dutch creator Jiri Kylian, a bolt of athletic force from Judith Jamison, a moody streak from German expressionist Pina Bausch–and larded it with its own inimitable quirkiness and genius; the result is quite nearly a perfect pie every time.
